The late John Heard, 71 was reported dead on July 21, 2017. According to reports, he was in the hotel in Palo Alto, California when the maid service found him dead in his room. The Santa Clara County Medical Examiner's Office investigated the cause of death but it remained unsure until a recent update was released on August 16, 2017, by TMZ news.

The examiner's office that conducted the autopsy revealed to the outlet on August 15, that Heard died due to a Heart Attack caused by atherosclerotic and hypertensive heart disease.

Two days before he died, he went through minor back surgery at Stanford Medical Center near the hotel. The surgery did not have anything to do with his death.

His iconic role as dad Peter McCallister in 'Home Alone'

Actor John Heard was remembered by the public mostly for his mainstream role as Peter McCallister in the 1990 comedy film "Home Alone." He played a patriarchal role who left his son at home for a Christmas trip when the family went to France. "Home Alone" has two following sequels but Heard did not play the role in all of them.

Heard had other lead roles in drama, comedy, and horror box office films like "Heart Beat," (1980), "Chilly Scenes of Winter," (1979) and "Cat People," (1982).

He also took the supporting roles in the movie "After Hours," (1985), "Awakenings," (1990), "Animal Factory," (2000) and more on his list of involvement in showbiz. He had great success in his acting career including his nomination for an Emmy Award in 1999.

Complicated heart disease killed director Demme

Esophageal cancer and complications from heart disease also killed the award winning director and producer Jonathan Demme. He died at 3:30 AM in the morning on April 26, 2017. He was with his wife Joanne Howard and three children before he breathed his last in his apartment in Manhattan.

Until in his death, the iconic director helped his cherished charity Americans for Immigration Justice and his family requested that instead of flowers donations be made to the charity.

Some of Demme's successful creations were "Caged Heat," (1974), "Fighting Mad," (1976), "Crazy Mama," (1975), "Melvin and Howard," (1980), "Stop Making Sense," (1984), "Something Wild," (1986) and "Married to the Mob," (1988).

Today, heart problems are the leading cause of death for both ordinary and popular individuals. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, statistics in the United States show that about 610,000 individuals die every year. That is about 1 in every 4 deaths Every year there are 735,000 Americans who have heart attacks and 525,000 of these are first timers.